Thursday, September 10, 2009

Smorgasboard

We went to Atlantic City a week ago where we stayed at the Tropicana Hotel, which is really rather lovely. It's basically a casino with an Old Quarter replete with cobbled stones, overhead fans reminiscent of an Havana restaurant blowing gentle breezes in one's face and lots of interesting restaurants.

We dined at Cuba Libre, an excellent Cuban restaurant where we tried a special meal they prepared for people not used to Cuban food. Of course, the de rigeour black beans were there, as were the plantains--but so too was a variety of chicken dishes including pork and chicken awash in refreshing fruit marinades one associates with the tropics. Their thinly sliced toast and mango butter was delicious.

Larry and I now plan to go to the original Cuba Libre in Old City Philadelphia as a result.

As it was Larry's birthday, a couple of shows were in order. We saw Fame--rather good--and Cirque's Pandemonia--not so good; boring, in fact.

The board walk's apparently the best in the US--I found it long and tawdry. We walked it up to Taj Mahal, which was as I expected: Gaudy and tasteless interior, as gaudy as his tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the only difference being there were wasn't any busy Italian granite on the walls. A warren, really. And, naturally, the Donald's book about getting rich was prominent in almost every window of the bazaar. I think it was called Ali's Bazaar or something.

And yes, fluttered a wee bit on the one-armed bandits and didn't win but did break even.------------------What a magnificent speech president Obama delivered last night. He is truly a leader, a man of decent intent, a man who represents all Americans. I cannot understand why sane people regardless of their political ideology would not want to improve the existing bloated heath care system we have currently with a just system that covers all Americans at a fair cost and without prejudice to income level or pre-existing condition. He is right to say we must move forward and that he will disregard the intentions and opinions of those who seek to maintain the staus quo.

Right wingers need to realize change is coming and get over the fact Obama won the election. Yes, a black man is leading the United States of America and he's doing a brilliant job. Get over yourself. Contain your hatred. Examine your consciences and be true and decent Americans.

Left wingers need to realize there will be National Health Care system in America. This country loves private enterprise and decent, honest profits--not GREED--and the public option is a good way to move forward.

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About Me

I was born in Northern Ireland and came of age during The Troubles. Wrote a first novel while commuting to work as an attorney in NY. It still exists as bits and bytes on a floppy disk and will probably never get revisited because I got sick to death of the heroine after spending two years with her. So bored with her situations did I become (or was it an unwillingness to do yet another edit?), I packed her into a trunk and commenced my second novel that got published both here in the US and UK. It's called A Son Called Gabriel. To my surprise, it took on a life of its own by getting selected as an ABA BookSense Pick and becoming a finalist in a couple of literary awards. I'm now busy with my second novel, a transatlantic tale set in London and NYC, and mulling the plot for another novel.
E-MAIL: damianmcnichollvarney-AT- gmail-DOT-com